Line Lock

Line Lock

Line locks are designed to let the front and rear brakes work independently of one another. A line lock is a solenoid-activated valve that controls the flow of brake fluid. It is placed between the master cylinder and the brake calipers. A switch or button inside the car controls the line lock solenoid. Line locks are used in drag racing for burnouts and allow the front brakes to lock up while not affecting the rear brakes - allowing the rear tires to spin freely. Line locks protect the engine and rear brakes from undue wear.
When line locks first came out they were used as a launch tool for drag racing, but when trans brakes came out they became the better option. Now days, line locks are pretty much exclusively used for burnouts.A line lock can work one of two ways: 1. Keep brake fluid from leaving the front brake lines, 2. Block brake fluid from reaching the rear brake lines.
When used in the first example that keeps brake fluid from leaving the front calipers, the line lock is placed on the brake line heading to the front brakes. Apply the brakes and press (hold) the line lock button. By holding the button the valve stays closed keeping the brake fluid trapped in the front calipers. Now you can release the brake pedal and the car will remain stationary as long as you hold the button – leaving the rear wheels free to spin.In the second example of blocking brake fluid from reaching the rear lines, the line lock is placed on the brake line heading to the rear brakes. When you push the line lock button, and hold it, the solenoid closes the valve to the rear brakes, so when you do apply the brake pedal, fluid can only travel to the front brakes leaving the rear wheels free to spin. Installed in this fashion, you have more control over brake pressure and can creep forward toward the end of your burnout by slowly releasing the brake pedal.

Burnout Technique

Burnout Technique

Burnouts are traditionally used to warm up a car’s tires before a drag race. Warming up the tires makes the rubber softer increasing traction and also cleans the tires of road debris like gravel – further increasing traction. Slicks or drag radials are needed for a burnout to have noticeable results on the track, as burnouts using street tires do little more than make smoke and destroy rubber.
Burnouts occur when engine power overcomes the tires’ ability to maintain traction with the ground and use of the brakes keep the car from moving forward. Friction between the tires and road surface melts the rubber causing smoke. Drag race tracks typically have a “burnout box” in the staging area where water is sprayed on the ground to help facilitate burnouts. This is the only place on the track where water is permitted and drivers are instructed to first drive around the puddle and then reverse until only the rear wheels meet the water. Keeping the track dry is a major safety concern. Although a burnout is more of an art than science, there is a technology that can make burnouts easier in rear wheel drive cars - a line lock.
A burnout in a car without limited slip differential is known as a “one tire fire” as only one tire spins. When doing a burnout in a FF car, apply the e-brake since it only affects the rear brakes and will help keep the car stationary. If your car has traction control, turn it off before doing a burnout. Oil or bleach can be used on tires to enhance a burnout or allow an underpowered vehicle to perform a burnout.

Burnout Warnings:

• Never rev the engine and “pop” an automatic transmission into gear, as this can destroy your gearbox. Revving the engine in neutral and jamming it into gear will damage your transmission. Instead, leave the car in Drive, hold the brake (left foot) and rev the engine (right foot) at the same time, then let the brake go.
• You can break an axle doing a burnout.
• You can destroy a clutch doing a burnout incorrectly.
• You can destroy an engine by redlining.

How to do a burnout in FF car:

Manual Transmission Front Wheel Drive Cars

1. Apply e-brake.
2. Put the car in first gear.
3. Rev engine around 4,000 RPM.
4. Dump the clutch.
5. Wheels spin.
6. Manage RPMs and watch out for redline! If you need to shift, do it! It’s called “grabbing gears” and you’ll need to know how to do this to pull off successful donuts.
7. To stop burnout release e-brake and ease off gas.

Automatic Transmission Front Wheel Drive Cars

1. Apply e-brake.
2. Put car in Drive.
3. Heavy on brake pedal (left foot) and Rev engine around 4,000 RPM (right foot).
4. Release brake pedal.
5. Wheels spin.
6. Manage RPMs.
7. To stop burnout release e-brake and ease off gas.

How to do a burnout in FR car:

Manual Transmission Rear Wheel Drive Cars

1. Put the car in first gear.
2. Rev engine around 4,000 RPM.
3. In one quick motion, “dump” the clutch and press the brake pedal (left foot) while flooring the gas (right foot).
4. Wheels spin.
5. Manage RPMs and brake pressure. The idea is to keep the car still with the brake pedal (left foot) and apply enough horsepower (right foot) to break traction in the rear wheels. Perhaps this aspect of performing a burnout is the hardest – adjusting brake pressure to keep the car motionless while allowing the rear wheels to spin is known as “feathering” or pumping the brakes.
6. To stop burnout ease off gas.

Automatic Transmission Rear Wheel Drive Cars

1. Apply brake pedal (left foot).
2. Put the car in Drive.
3. Keep holding the brakes (left foot) and floor the gas (right foot).
4. Manage RPMs and brake pressure. Again the idea is to apply enough brake pressure (left foot) to keep the car motionless and enough gas (right foot) to keep the tires spinning.
5. To stop burnout ease off gas.

Rollbacks:

A rollback is a burnout performed on an incline. This gives an underpowered car a chance to smoke the tires – thanks gravity!
Manual Transmission Rollback

1. Find a hill.
2. Put the car in first gear.
3. Clutch.
4. Let car roll backwards down the hill.
5. Rev engine.
6. Pop the clutch.
7. Wheels spin.
8. Manage RPMs.
9. To stop burnout ease off gas.

what is drifting ???

Sideways In Control With Style

Yes, what is drifting??? Drifting would be described by most people as going through a corner with your car sideways while keeping the throttle floored.

The sideways part is correct, but it takes a little more to explain what drifting really is all about. It’s not just flooring the throttle; it takes a delicate balance to “keep” the car sideways......

Racers use the term oversteer to refer to going sideways. This basically means steering too much. Or rather, even without the driver’s steering input, the car steers more than you would like to.

Usually if the car has a natural tendency to oversteer, when you steer the car either too hard or too fast into the corner the rear starts coming out and and in no time you'll lose the back tires from gripping to the surface. But there is a way to still be in control when you're sliding...

The solution to this “oversteer” is to keep the front tires into the direction of where you want to go (countersteer or “opposite lock”) and throttle your way out of the corner. Of course this is more than just countersteering and flooring the throttle.

It’s a precise balance of steering, accelerating, braking, shifting and pulling the e-brake to remain in the state of oversteer, or as it is now known; drifting. It really is driving almost beyond the limit of control, right on the edge!

Special drifting techniques are used to get or keep the car into a state of oversteer. In drifting as we know it today these racing techniques have really been taken to the extreme, pushing the boundaries of what a car is capable of to the limit.

WHAT IS DRIFTING? IT’S NOT FOR THE NOVICE DRIVER!

It might look easy, but it takes incredible car control to a drift. Only dedicated drivers, who have been practicing for years can control the car how they want. When driving on the very edge of control one small mistake can end up in a serious accident.

Saving Weight

Saving weight is a very effective way to improve the car’s driving and drifting abilities. It improves just about everything a car has to offer: Acceleration, braking, handling and fuel economy are all improved.

Weigh The Car

Before you start with your weight saving program the first step is to weigh the car as-is. Don't be surprised if the total weight is different from what the the specifications sheet is telling you. Factory spec. sheets don't include the liters of fluids, oil and gas.

You can also find out how much weight rests on each tire. This is important information to find out the factory stock weight distribution. There are special weight scales to corner weight an object, found at any professional tuning workshop.

WEIGH ALL FOUR CORNERS INDIVIDUALLY

Grip is a function of weight so an important aspect of tuning is the amount of weight pushing each tire on the road. And since your only contact patch with the road are the tires it's really important that you take weight distribution into account.

Weigh the car first to verify the total amount of weight you've stripped out. Then corner weigh your car to get valuable information for later in the tuning process.

Strip Your Car

The cheapest way to tune a car is simply to strip it. Take out anything you don’t need. All the parts added up together will bring down the weight significantly.

If a car weighs 1500 kilograms and has 200 HP the power-to-weight ratio is 7,5. So for every 7,5 kg removed you should gain about the same as adding 1 HP. The same formula applies to torque, but saving weight is more than just more power. It really improves everything in terms of performance.

Don't just take out random parts. Investigate and plan ahead on the things you would like to remove and consider if they are worth removing.

There's plenty of stuff you can take out.

Saving Weight Simple:

•   Stereo / Speakers
•   Tire Floor Cover
•   Spare Wheel and Jack
•   Front & Rear Floor Mats
•   Carpet
•   Rear Seat
•   Rear Hatch Cover
•   Passenger Seat
•   Door Panels
•   Sound Deadening

Saving Weight Advanced:

•   Air Conditioning
•   Passenger Airbag
•   Most Electric Options
•   Excess wiring

All of this can easily add up to 100+ kilograms. At 7,5 kg/HP power-to-weight ratio that's about 13 HP power gain. And the improved handling, braking and fuel economy.

The rear seat, stereo, spare tire, AC, etc, it’s totally up to you how much you want to strip out. Just remember that if you would also like to use your car as a daily driver I suggest you leave the interior intact as much as possible. Because you really do sacrifice comfort and practicality for performance.

Saving Weight & Lightweight Material

If you think that stripping the car is not enough than you're going to have to buy aftermarket lightweight parts. The most popular material used in car tuning is carbon. It is very lightweight and super strong. And even though it's very expensive this material is in shortage all over the world. Alternative options are kevlar and fiberglass, but these aren't cheap either.

It's true that every bit of weight counts but with such expensive materials you should carefully think it over. While a carbon hood looks great and improves performance by reducing the overall weight, buying one sets you back around $1000 to $2000.

If we go back to our above example of the 7,5 power-to-weight ratio, at 25 kg of weight reduction you should have the same as a 3 1/3 HP increase. At $1300 paid for the hood that is $390 per HP!

Because a carbon hood saves a lot of weight and has quite a high center-of-gravity, a carbon hood or trunk lid might help a little, but if you aren't in a fortunate financial position you start to wonder if there aren't cheaper ways to gain extra performance.

But with enough money to spend, why not? Because still every bit of saving weight helps, even those $1800 racing seats. Carbon just happens to be very expensive so if you don't have the money you should really consider to go after another upgrade first.

CARBON HELPS REDUCING THE WEIGHT SIGNIFICANTLY

For some cars there are even full carbon bodykits available. Listed below are more examples of carbon parts.

•   Carbon Front Hood
•   Carbon Trunk Lid
•   Carbon Racing Seats
•   Carbon Side Mirrors
•   Carbon Doors
•   Carbon Interior Panels
•   Carbon Diffuser

There are also other parts available made from other lightweight materials, much lighter than their stock counterpart.

•   Steering Wheel (without airbag)
•   Lightweight Aluminum Racing Wheels
•   Aluminum Racing Exhaust
•   Aluminum Fuel Cell
•   Lexan/Acrylic Windows

There's not much more that you can do about the weight, saving weight is no magic formula. Just remember that for tuning your car to race or drift on the track weight distribution is much more important than the total weight.

Drift Tuning 101

Drifting With A Stock Setup

If you're new to drifting you might need this short drift tuning 101. Because not even the best sports car is made to drift, chances are that you find it hard to keep the car sideways. Manufacturers and tuning companies tune their sport cars to keep all four tires sticking to the road, rather much like a race car.

Not that most RWD sports cars aren't capable of drifting, but you get the idea. A car simply isn't designed to withstand the forces generated when it's driving sideways. For a bone-stock factory car and especially the cheaper ones the suspension usually is not up for the job and way too soft. The engine often has insufficient power and the differential is always too open.

After reaching the limits in your stock car, which shouldn't take you long, it's time to address each of those areas and buy some new drift parts. Firm suspension, a locked differential and enough engine power is the perfect recipe for a good drift setup.

If you're still early in the process of learning how to drift a big advantage of drifting with a stock setup over a tuned setup is that you can really get a good feeling for the physics involved in drifting and can develop a reaction to the weight transitions. It is beneficial to develop your drifting instinct in a (near) stock car, because it will be much easier to drive on the car's limits. Besides, driving is expensive as it is already, you are better off investing your money in driving time than in new parts. The basic message of this drift tuning 101 is basically to spend your money wisely!

If you install drift parts beyond your skill level you will not be able to get the maximum out of the car so easily. It's a personal opinion, but you will learn a lot more from this approach. Anyway, to each his own strategy but I would like to recommend only to upgrade certain parts if you really feel it's necessary and maxed out the current car's capabilities.

As you can see in this old video of myself, drifting with an open differential isn't easy. I didn't have a lot of experience back then but that is just the point. By doing it wrong you learn what you should do to get it right. I have learned a lot since then and you should expect to see some footage here on DriftingStreet eventually, but I am currently without a drift car and camera.

Stock VS Tuned

This drift tuning 101 focuses on outlining the differencesbetween a tuned car and a bone-stock factory Car.Although some cars need a little tuning to get them sideways, usually not much is required for some serious drifting fun. The goal is to get it sideways with no or few modifications. Getting sideways and controlling the drift in a stock car is not very easy. Still it's important to get comfortable with the car's behavior when drifting. You will need to develop a natural reaction to the weight transitions.

Just as any other high performance motorsport there's very little time to think while drifting so you will have to learn how to react to the sudden changes in direction without thinking. Eventually everything should go subconsciously, giving you space to focus on the rest. Upgraded suspension also means that everything responds faster so you will have to react quicker.

DRIFT TUNING 101: PRACTICE WITH STOCK SETUP

If you practice drifting in stock cars first you might have a hard time getting it right, but the lesson learned from figuring out how to drift with stock suspension will help you a lot later on. Stock suspension is a lot softer than the suspension you find on tuned cars, so the car will respond slower to your driving input.

If you can't reach the car's limits in stock form there's no point in buying parts to upgrade, a car is only as good as its driver. However, as soon as you get better you’ll realize that drifting in stock form certainly has its limitations. Once you get familiar with weight transitions you are ready to take it to the next level by upgrading parts.

Every rear wheel drive car can drift in theory. But some cars just don't have enough to get it properly sideways so they need some basic upgrades. Usually the spring, dampers, differential and engine need some work. Read more on which cars are good for drifting in our drift cars section.

I hope this short drift tuning 101 has helped you understand what the consequenses are of installing aftermarket parts on your car. Every newly added parts changes the behavior of your car and it is essential that you understand what it does.

Drift Parts

Tune It To Slide

As a drifting enthusiast putting on new drift parts is exciting. But since most of us don't have an unlimited supply of money it can get ridiculously expensive. So instead of just buying random parts you should make a plan. This tuning plan will be based on the amount of time, effort and money you're willing to put into your project.

If you just started with drifting read our Drift Tuning 101.

The information listed for each of the tuning parts is far from complete, but you'll get a general idea of what each part is and does, and what to look for when you go shopping for drift parts.

Drift Tuning

There's no better way to start your tuning adventure than by saving weight. I assure you that it helps a lot to remove a few pounds! After removing as much weight as possible you could continue installing new parts.

All the aftermarket modifications listed below are used in drifting, but of course you don't need everything. Just upgrade the parts one at a time so you can learn what each part does.

Want to know more about car tuning? Stay tuned for more drift parts, or check out Torque Cars and Cartuning-guide (Dutch) for more information on this subject.

Car Drifting Explained

The Car Drifting Explained section will shed some light on drifting.
 

Here you can learn:
 

•   What drifting is
  
  
•   History of drifting
  
  
•   Learn how to drift
  
  

  

Read along to learn all about the myths of drifting...

Balance & Control!

Don’t know what drifting is ? You’re not the only one. Most people never even heard about it. Still though, bit-by-bit it’s becoming more and more mainstream every day now.

It doesn’t matter how big of a petrolhead you are, we’ve all seen the car chases on TV where cars overspeed in corners and go sideways.

They lose the back-end and spectacularly manage to speed through the corner with the car completely sideways. (or not)

Remember those car chases on TV?Drifting is just that! The term refers to the car being in a condition of oversteer.

Rather than just simply losing the back end and correcting it to save yourself from crashing, like on TV, it's all about trying to remain in a state of oversteer, sliding the car throughout the whole corner. By taking the most exciting elements from motorsports a complete new type of sport took off!

After the history of drifting of 30+ years or so, it has become tremendously popular across the whole world.

It’s most definitely the most exciting way to express yourself in motorsports, because it demands just so much car control from the driver! Going through a corner sideways just fills you with adrenaline and gives you an incredibly rewarded feeling. Unless you mess up of course!

Car Drifting Explained

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What Is Drifting
What is drifting? Learn all about this new form of motorsports, how it works and why it became as popular as it is today.

Japanese Drifting History
The history of drifting and the art of oversteer! Who is the legendary drift king Keiichi Tsuchiya? Read all about the history of drifting here...

Learn How To Drift
All the info you need to learn how to drift here. If you are considering taking your car out drifting then look no further! With the drift information here you will be drifting in no time!

Drifting Through Life!

Drifting can only be mastered over a long period of time, dedication, practice, tires and money. You have to study the physics of racing and drifting techniques to be able to throw the car into oversteer mode.

It’s not something you learn in a day, however the car drifting explained section here, and the rest of this website, contain all the information you'll need to start drifting.

So why would anyone want to drive like this? Well, the answer to that is very simple; Drifting couldn't be more fun and exciting!

Drifting your car is the most exhilarating feeling you'll ever experience, it's just such a thrill! The best combination of man (or woman) and machine!

Of course, don't forget that racers are a competitive breed of people. Everyone has its own reasons and motivation to practice drifting, but usually everyone simply wants to become better at driving and controlling a car.

If you would like to learn how to drift then all you need is a RWD car, a passion for driving, some patience, and a whole lot of and tires.

Want more car drifting explained? For more information about drifting check back regularly and watch this space for more articles covering all assets from the art of oversteer!